MY FRIENDS, CAN YOU IMAGINE IF OUR SALVATION WAS UP TO US?

May 11, 2016

MY FRIENDS, CAN YOU IMAGINE IF OUR SALVATION WAS UP TO US?

Today my friends it’s personal, because I am personally asking Christ for “more grace so I can finish running this race. As I sit, I realize I have come short of His glory, but I also recognize that all the pardon I need I have found in my Lord and Savior. And so I’ve made up my mind to ask for just a little more grace and a little more time.

“Often heard it said, time belongs to no one because a clock can’t turn back all the wrong we’ve done but Lord I’m calling out your name as best I can and I’m asking for the blessings that comes only from your name.” Because “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved except the name of Jesus Christ.” Acts 4:12 (NKJV)

From Wikipedia, grace is defined as a “theological term present in many religions. It has been defined as the divine influence which operates in humans to regenerate and sanctify, to inspire virtuous impulses, and to impart strength to endure trial and resist temptation and as an individual virtue or excellence of divine origin.

My friends, I love the words to “regenerate and sanctify, to inspire virtuous impulses, and to impart strength to endure trials and resist temptations.” In Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV) it says  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Simply put, grace can only be defined as an unearned favor, a free gift that can never be earned no matter how many sick individuals we visit, or how much tithe we give or food we give to the homeless. No amount of work will ever earn Gods favor. It is God’s gift, a gift of salvation, granted to sinners for their salvation. But we must realize, our salvation is personal.

Because, I can only speak for myself when I say if it “were not for grace, I can tell you where I’d be, wandering down some pointless road to nowhere with my salvation up to me and I know how that would go, the battles I would face forever running but losing the race but, were it not for grace. (Larnelle Harris) So my friends, let’s pause for a moment as we lay prostrate before God and think about all the time, and grace, God has given us to get it right?

In other words “If grace were an ocean we would all be sinking.” And then think about all the time we spend in front of our TV’s or shopping at the mall or gossiping on the phone, or at the dinner table after church. Paul says it best in Romans 3:20-24 (ESV) For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” My friends, I personally never want to imagine myself “wandering down some pointless road to nowhere with my salvation up to me.”

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.